the Palestine Refugee Crisis: Humanitarian Assistance and Political Solution in the Framework of the United Nations

Abstract

This research article has three main objectives: (1) To clarify the development of Palestine refugee crisis situation since 1948 to present; (2) To clarify the role of the United Nations in providing humanitarian assistance to Palestine refugees and; (3) To clarify political solutions to the Palestine refugee crisis within the framework of the United Nations. Based on the concept of settler colonialism and humanitarianism, this research article uses qualitative research methods to study related documents. The results of study are as follows: (1) The emergence and development of the Palestinian refugee crisis situation is a significant result of Israel's settler colonization process. This process has continued before the founding of the State of Israel until the present day to systematically destroy and replace the demographics of the occupied territories; (2) To provide humanitarian assistance to Palestine refugees, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has expanded its mission to cover almost every aspect of refugee life. This brings about a budgetary dilemma that is not sustainable for mitigating the negative impacts of conflicts that will never end easily and; (3) The key challenges in solving political problems within the framework of the UN Security Council (UNSC) are not only the use of the United States' veto over relevant draft resolutions but also the inability to enforce the resolution against Israel.  The UNSC has thus failed both to provide a political solution and to deter further Israeli operations with humanitarian impacts.